Prosecutorial misconduct (a term of
jurisprudence) refers to a
procedural defense; via which, a
defendant may argue that they should not be held
criminally liable for
actions which broke the
law, because the
prosecution acted in an "inappropriate" or "unfair" manner. Such arguments may involve allegations that the prosecution withheld
evidence or knowingly permitted false
testimony. This is similar to
selective prosecution. In late
1993, the
6th US Circuit Court of Appeals[?] ruled that
John Demjanjuk had been a victim of prosecutorial misconduct during a
1986 trial in which
federal prosecutors withheld evidence. Demjanjuk's
sentence was overturned, but he lost when his case was retried.
In the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson, the defense argued that Los Angeles Police Department detective Mark Fuhrman had planted "evidence" at the crime scene[?]. Although Fuhrman denied the allegations, Simpson was found "not guilty". In USA Today (August 24, 1995), Francis Fukuyama stated, "[Such defenses lead to] a distrust of government and the belief that public authorities are in a vast conspiracy to violate the rights of individuals."